Thursday, 7 April 2016

Execution Day

Most people just referred to it
as ‘e-day’ – seemed simpler somehow than the full title.

It had been a long time coming
but now the day was here, and the world would watch on and wonder just how they
had managed to get to this point.

It had taken a different
generation from my own to put all the laws in place, but hey - it was their
world now and they ran to a different beat of the drum.

But I have to ask myself, as an
old man, how this could have happened - did my society make so much of a mess
of things that it had come to this?

Technology had overtaken the
world during my lifetime and only the young seemed to be able to keep pace with
it all.

Two institutions failed. I mean
really failed - and they were probably responsible in their own way as to why
it all happened in the manner it did.

The first to crash and burn were
the newspapers – they spread the news – old news – with ink and paper inside a
world which was changing every second, and so found it difficult to hold on.
What they did however, was to use their papers to spread lies, gossip and
misjudgements. It was done to keep their sales up – and folks got used to this
skewered thinking which allowed people to make instant judgements on those who
were not like them.

The other institution which
failed was the legal system. It was run by old men and women who controlled new
technologies with law made hundreds of years before. Social Networks baffled
them all and the laws failed to keep pace with the changing morals and the changing
attitudes.

New Law, as it was called, had
its origins in the reality shows once so popular on television. The old talent
shows which allowed the young and the bored to judge others by paying money and
texting (as they called it back then).

New Law became a phenomenon of
the Western World and folks were judged by others – (others who sat on their
sofas and watched the world pass by).

And when James McDonald of New
Glasgow (the over-spill city built in the west highlands) allegedly murdered his
wife and hid her body under the floor – it was selected as the first New Law
trial.

The old law makers had been
shunted off and the laws of the land were now under the control of the mass
media conglomerates. Their philosophy was ‘entertain the masses and they will
do what you ask’.

This was reality entertainment
at its peak. The trial would begin every evening at 8pm and last for several
hours. It was all anyone could talk about the next day.

On the final day of the trial
the viewers were asked to vote on whether James McDonald was guilty or not
guilty.

The votes were Guilty 78% and
Not Guilty 22%.

So now we are here, at e-day
when those who judged get free-viewing, and those people overseas pay a fee to
watch his execution.

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Stealing Moses

Thank You, Mr F.

About Me

I was born in the West Coast of Scotland - a beautiful part of the world. Grew up in Paris, France and Woodstock, New York. I studied writing at college and gained a Masters. I wrote a short film 'Stealing Moses' which was selected by the British Urban Film Festival, 2015 and was supported by Channel 4. I have been selected to pitch at BAFTA, twice. I trained through TAPS at Emmerdale and The Bill.